Message text written by Dave Black >I am told that A. cerana ventilates the hive facing out, A melifera >facing in. I have scanned my videos all weekend and not managed to >decide if this is true or not. Do any of you know ? Apparently it is. Ruttner refers to it, and gives a couple of references to relevant papers in Biogeography and Taxonony of Honeybees. However I didn't notice any difference when I briefly worked with A. cerana in India a few years ago . Now that I come to think of it, I'm not convinced that A. mellifera colonies always fan facing inwards. Don't they sometimes fan in two or more groups: some facing inwards, others facing outwards? It's so cold here in the UK (as Dave knows) that no colony is fanning at the moment so I can't go and check. Perhaps others in warmer countries can. James Morton London UK